CHICAGO — Chicago Public Schools is set to open for full-time, in-person learning Monday for the first time since the pandemic closed schools in March 2020. But some area parents say they still aren’t comfortable sending their children back.
Other parents, as well as the leader of the Chicago Teachers Union, also shared their skepticism at Wednesday’s Board of Education about the adequacy of COVID-19 safety protections that will be in place when hundreds of thousands of students show up Monday morning.
CTU President Jesse Sharkey raised concerns about the district’s ability to ensure 3 feet of social distancing wherever possible. He also cited the low vaccination rate of children in some parts of the city and the lack of air flow in some older school buildings.
“This is not about CTU grandstanding or trying to accentuate a conflict for the sake of doing it,” Sharkey said as he addressed the board by phone during the meeting’s public comment period.
“We’re going to continue sounding the alarm about it, and we’re going to continue talking out about it.”
Interim CPS CEO José Torres pointed out the relationship between CTU and CPS has been fractured for years and addressed what he calls “some of the fears that CTU has planted, frankly.” Still, he said the two sides are “very close to having an agreement” on fall reopening plans.
There’s still dispute on what the criteria would be for a temporary halt to in-person learning.
“I’ve gone on the record that if the metrics are at such a point where the (Chicago Department of Public Health) tells us that it’s unsafe for us to be physically together, that I will be the first to go to the governor and to the state superintendent. ... The governor will have to declare a state of emergency to allow for remote instruction,” Torres said.
“We are focused on safety and health, and we’re working together to achieve that goal.”
Some community members say the time to establish a remote option is already here.
A group of parents and advocates rallied in the Loop Wednesday to demand an e-learning option for their children.
Among them was Cortney Ritsema, 38, who held up a green sign asking the Illinois State Board of Education, “How many kids need to get sick for you to give us a remote option?”
Ritsema said she intends to keep her three children at home next week rather than send them to CPS schools. She has a set of twins who are due to start kindergarten and a third grader who she said suffers from severe asthma. All are too young to be eligible for a vaccine.
She applied for her third grade daughter to attend CPS’s Virtual Academy, which is remote but limited to those with certain medical qualifications. Ritsema said her daughter’s application was denied.
“I got a notification saying I was denied because her attendance last year was above 75%,” said Ritsema. “They we’re reserving seats for students who were severely disengaged.”
She also said that even if her daughter had qualified, “my 5-year-old twins can easily go to school and bring something home to our family. They were not going extend the virtual option to siblings or same households.”
According to CPS, 749 applied to the Virtual Academy and 369 accepted. The district previously said it had identified about 3,000 students who would qualify and extended the deadline after only a tiny fraction of that number applied.
Though the turnout at Wednesday’s rally was relatively small, one of the groups that organized it, Raise Your Hand for Illinois Public Education, said two online petitions seeking a virtual learning option — one started by Raise Your Hand and another aimed specifically at Indian Prairie District 204 in the Aurora-Naperville area — have gained more than 6,000 signatures.
Based on a separate Raise Your Hand survey of CPS parents, the group said 800 families are considering pulling their children out of school without a remote option.
Jennifer Baez, who has kids due to start fifth and 10th grade in CPS this year, said she attended several town hall meetings to help her feel more comfortable about sending them back to school. Each time she left disappointed.
“There’s no proper protocol for students if a teacher or student exhibits COVID symptoms,” said Baez. “They want us to blindly hand our children over on the 30th.”
She too said she won’t do that.
“I will not be sending my children to school on the 30th,” said Baez. “I just don’t see how, with a year of remote learning, they have nothing for us.”
CPS and city officials have repeatedly said schools are safe and that the district has a multi-layered strategy for suppressing the spread of COVID-19. Officials have also repeatedly referenced the limitations of remote learning and the importance of resuming in-person classes.
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